CSM Sport & Entertainment, a division of Chime Communications PLC and at sports marketing agency has announced the acquisition of the Chinese communications and event management company PEOPLE Marketing founded by Irene Cheung, five years ago.

The company, which employs 25 people,  has prestigious clients including Remy Cointreau, The European Golf Tour, BMW, UBS and Ernest Borel and will work closely with London based CSM Sport & Entertainment’s growing global business, now chaired by former Olympic and Paralympic Chairman Lord Coe.

PEOPLE Marketing specialises in communications consultancy, concept development, event and activation management and public relations and has dramatically expanded its client portfolio over the last three years.

Founder and CEO Irene Cheung said: “We are delighted and excited to be joining the CSM Sport & Entertainment family and we look forward to working together to grow the global businesses of CSM in China and across the region.  There are huge opportunities for domestic and international brands in the Asian-Pacific region and we look forward to working with all the CSM agencies to make sure we’re in the best position to help these brands and businesses reach their marketing goals. .”

CSM Sport & Entertainment CEO, Jim Glover said: “PEOPLE Marketing is a stand-out business in a very competitive market and we believe that with our support and experience we can work together to develop our business and move into new areas as part of our global aspirations and business plan. Everyone is aware of the Asia growth story and as international brands seek a route into this market, sponsorship and event marketing are increasingly important tools in unlocking business opportunities.  The potent combination of CSM’s international capability and PEOPLE’s broader China expertise, will be of huge value to existing and future clients.”

Chairman of CSM Sport & Entertainment Lord Coe said: “The speed and growth of business and sports in China is phenomenal and we are very fortunate to be teaming up with a company with such fantastic experience and credentials as PEOPLE Marketing.  Their reputation in the China market is first class and they were a natural partner as we look to continue the growth of CSM in the Asian-Pacific region.”

Most recently PEOPLE Marketing has been providing communications consultancy and activation management to Remy V.S.O.P for the dance platform and worked with the European Tour for the communication and press relations for Omega Missions Hills World Cup and UBS Hong Kong Open since 2008 and 2010  respectively. 

The company, which is based in Shanghai recently won the pitch to becoming the leading communication agency for BMW Golfsport which includes BMW Masters, BMW International Golf Cup and BMW Junior Programme and UBS retained PEOPLE Marketing to manage the maximisation program for its title sponsorship of the China Grand Prix for the last three years.

Organisers of Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 in Moscow have announced a record number of official travel agencies (OTAs) have been appointed, underscoring the global appeal of the showcase event.

So far nine OTAs have been appointed by the Rugby Union of Russia (RUR) and with a user-friendly visa process also in place, it is now easier than ever for fans to take their seat for this thrill-a-minute tournament, which takes place from June 28-30 at the world famous Luzhniki Stadium.

All OTAs offer fun-packed trips to this festival of Rugby and music planned for the vibrant and exciting Russian capital, and with several airlines offering competitive prices on direct flights – including as low as £50 from the UK – and tickets for the tournament on sale from just US$5, RWC Sevens 2013 looks set to provide a global showcase for the best Sevens has to offer.

Rugby World Cup Limited Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 is one of the must-see events on the global sporting calendar this year and an opportunity for sports fans in Russia and around the world to see an Olympic sport that brings people together for a festival of world-class Rugby, entertainment and fun in one of the world’s most vibrant cities.”

“The appointment of a global official travel agent programme reflects the strong reach and appeal of a sport that continues to attract new fans around the world. Interest is high, preparations are on track and I am sure that Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 will be a resounding success.”

The OTAs are spread across South Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan, France and Spain. More agencies will be appointed in due course.

Sir Nick Faldo has announced that the inaugural Faldo Series Nepal Championship will take place on 18-19 October at Gokarna Forest Resort in Kathmandu. Young golfers from across the Himalayan region are set to benefit from the six-time Major winner’s global golf development programme.

“We have enjoyed a close relationship with golfers from the Himalayan region ever since Ziwang Gurung travelled from Bhutan to play in a Faldo Series tournament in 2008, capsule ” said Faldo. “Incredibly, for a golfer who only has access to nine holes and had never been outside his country before, let alone in an airplane, he qualified for the Grand Final at Mission Hills in China. I hope by bringing the Faldo Series to Nepal we can create more opportunity for players like Ziwang to achieve their dreams.”

“I thank the Himalayan Youth Golf Association, the Nepal Golf Association and Gokarna Forest Resort for sharing my vision and for bringing the Series toNepal,” added the former world number one. “I look forward to spending time with the winners at the Grand Final in China next March.”

“The Faldo Series will be a huge boost to golf development in the Himalayan region,” commented Tashi Ghale, General Secretary of the Nepal Golf Association. “We thank Sir Nick for his support and look forward to welcoming players from places like Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Northern India who will benefit significantly from this unique opportunity.”

Golfers aged 12 to 21 will play over two rounds in the Nepal Championship at Gokarna Forest Resort near the capital city of Kathmandu. There will also be pre-qualifying events for Nepalese golfers in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Dharan.

With the field for the Nepal Championship divided into four age-groups – two for boys and two for girls – the age-group winners will join Faldo for the seventh Faldo Series Asia Grand Final at Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen, China next March.

Established in 1996, 38 Faldo Series tournaments now take place in 28 countries worldwide with more than 7,000 golfers participating each year. Past winners include Major Champions Rory McIlroy and Yani Tseng.

The 2012/2013 Faldo Series Asia schedule features a record 18 tournaments in 15 countries, including four in mainland China and others in The Philippines, Chinese Taipei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand.

National Football League’s reigning most valuable player, Aaron Rodgers is set to star in two new ads for national pizza brand, Pizza Hut.

The ads may air as soon as Wednesday night when the New York Giants meet the Dallas Cowboys in the kickoff game of the NFL season. Otherwise, they will begin running on Sunday and throughout the rest of the season.

Rodgers will help kick off Pizza Hut’s new Big Dinner Box, described as an “epic-sized box” filled with two medium rectangular one-topping pan pizzas, five breadsticks and the choice of four Stuffed Pizza Rollers, one pan of Tuscani Pasta or eight wings.

“This epic box has something for everyone to enjoy and who better to represent our MVP product than the league’s top quarterback,” said Kurt Kane, Pizza Hut’s chief marketing officer.

The deal with Pizza Hut, terms of which were not disclosed, gives Rodgers another top-line firm in his endorsement portfolio. In addition to Pizza Hut, Rodgers has deals with Ford Motor Co., State Farm Insurance, Nike and Associated Bank. Locally, Rodgers appears with attorney David Gruber in ads for the Gruber Law Firm.

Rodgers also did a series of promotional ads for the Milwaukee Brewers.

The new Pizza Hut ads aim to tap into Rodgers’ dry sense of humor. His comic style was displayed most effectively last year with a series of State Farm ads, which gave the nationally known insurer a catch-phrase (“Discount Double Check”).

 

The Williams Formula 1 team has seen profits surge in the first half of 2011 by 37% on the previous year.

Pre-tax profit was £1.7m ($2.7m) after the cost of investing £1.1m ($1.75m) in energy firm Williams Hybrid Power and the Williams Technology Centre in Qatar.

Team Principal Sir Frank Williams said the first six months to 30 June showed “momentum” and “diversified growth”.

Williams went on the Frankfurt stock exchange in March.

As well as the F1 team, treatment Williams Grand Prix Holdings includes other firms, among them engineering and power concerns, as well as outside partnerships.

The firm has a deal with Renault to provide engines for its F1 cars, and a partnership with Jaguar Land Rover to jointly develop the C-X75 supercar.

Adam Parr, Williams chairman said: “Our core business has performed in line with expectations, with greater costs incurred in the first half. We have made several senior new appointments in engineering and aerodynamics, bolstering both our team devoted to improving track-side performance, and supporting our Jaguar Land Rover partnership.”

During the half-year period Williams extended existing sponsor deals with Randstad and Oris, and added Interbrand as a new partner.

Following the stock market launch, Sir Frank Williams has remained majority shareholder and team principal.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has followed the path of the National Football League (NFL) before it by locking out its players at midnight on Thursday, June 30, after eleventh-hour talks over a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ended in stalemate.

A three-hour negotiating session between the league and its Players Association (NBAPA) concluded in both sides admitting that the discrepancy was too large to resolve before the deadline at midnight Eastern Time.

According to Reuters, although the current agreement calls for 57 per cent of basketball-related income to be distributed to the players under a US$58m per team cap system, the owners had asked for the revenue split to be 50-50 under the new CBA.

The union had agreed reduced its counter proposal to 54.3 per cent, the equivalent of $100m per year of additional revenue to the owners over a five-year term. However, with NBA commissioner David Stern having warned that the league will make a $300m loss in the 2010-11 season, the two sides were still $7bn apart in their demands over a 10-year CBA.

NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver said: “The expiring collective bargaining agreement created a broken system that produced huge financial losses for our teams. We need a sustainable business model that allows all 30 teams to be able to compete for a championship, fairly compensates our players, and provides teams, if well-managed, with an opportunity to be profitable.

“We have made several proposals to the union, including a deal targeting $2bn annually as the players’ share – an average of approximately $5m per player that could increase along with league revenue growth. Elements of our proposal would also better align players’ pay with performance. We will continue to make every effort to reach a new agreement that is fair and in the best interests of our teams, our players, our fans, and our game.”

The lockout represents the NBA’s first work stoppage since the 1998-99 season, but the National Football League (NFL), North America’s richest major league, has also been in a lockout scenario since March. The Dallas Mavericks overcame Miami Heat in the finals of this year’s competition last month.

“We just haven’t been able to find that happy medium,” said union chief Billy Hunter. “We took a baby step (but) they didn’t take any at all. They started from what we considered an extreme number (initially) and trying to get to where we are or us get to get to them is mammoth.”

Ijaz Butt, chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), slammed the International Cricket Council for its reported decision to change the rotational policy in the appointment of presidents after 2015 yesterday, June 7.

The motion will be put to vote at the ICC’s board meeting later this month and the PCB will oppose the move in which reports claim that the ICC is planning to stop the rotation policy once the term of its president, Shawad Pawar’s, successor Alan Issac is over in 2015.

Butt stated: “We are very disappointed. It is just a few days left for the ICC Board meeting and why such a decision was taken now. What is the hurry, I don’t know.

“I can’t say much on this matter now but definitely we will take up the matter and oppose it at the ICC meeting (on June 28 in Hong Kong),” he told the Times Now television news channel.

Pakistan and Bangladesh would lose out if the current rotational policy is done away with as the two countries are to present their nominees for the post of ICC president and vice-president.

Pakistan’s former ICC president Ehsan Mani had hinted on Monday, June 6, that the change in rotational policy could be initiated by India so that somebody from India could “jump the queue” to the top post.

Mani said: “I don’t know why the ICC wants to change it (the rotational policy). If it is going to be changed, I want to ask who are the people behind this.”

Nine out of 10 Test playing nations have reportedly signed on the ICC’s proposal to change the rotational policy of ICC president, which was at the centre of a major controversy last year when Australia and New Zealand’s nominee John Howard, a former Prime Minister, was rejected by the other Boards.

When the post of ICC president was first created in 1996, it was a rotation amongst Full Members, who would each have a turn in appointing the President, commencing with India (Jagmohan Dalmiya), then Australia (Malcolm Gray), Pakistan (Ehsan Mani), South Africa (Percy Sonn).

In 2007, the post of vice-president was created and the system was tweaked to the current Vice President/President.

Though rotation stayed as a policy, nominations now came from pairs of countries: Australia-New Zealand, West Indies-England, India-Sri Lanka, Pakistan-Bangladesh and South Africa-Zimbabwe.

A new development, or lack there of, has occured with regards to the National Football League (NFL) and the league’s Player’s Association (NFLPA) collective bargaining agreement (CBA) discussions.

Progress toward getting a new labour deal completed before the current CBA expires on March 4 appear to have stalled, as a decision was made following talks on Febraury 9’s bargaining session, to cancel scheduled talks for yesterday, February 10.

One source said that today’s session between the NFL and NFLPA was canceled due to lack of progress though NFLPA officials did not respond to multiple phone calls and e-mails.

NFL Senior VP/PR Greg Aiello declined to answer questions about the negotiations, saying: “We are not confirming, denying or commenting on CBA meetings”

NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora reported both sides “thought that this week could maybe build some momentum and start hacking away at certain issues,” but added that the two parties are currently “at a loggerhead.”

He added: “It’s not as if they won’t talk in the future though. They do still have other meetings scheduled, they do still hope to make progress on a CBA and at some point establish the kind of momentum hour after hour, day after day that it will take to strike a deal.”